NAS options

[Marcos]

How do you guys make your data available to machines in the house?


I can justify having a full-size PC running all day just for file access, but i would like to put 2x 2TB HDDs on the network, 1 backing up the other (time-stamp, not RAID). I'd like to make it visible/accessible to Mac, Windows and PS3. I thought about a ReadyNAS Duo but proprietary OS, file format and unreliability scare me.

Any suggestions on how you'd go about it? For cheap

 

[Marcos]

I've a full size PC set up to wake on lan and sleep, running an MATX atom board in a cheap case with 8x hot swap sata bays (for ease of access). I have each drive set up independently, and currently have 2x 500gb, 2x 1tb and 2x 1.5tb. Mainly used to store media for the HTPC, but also backup all pcs my documents, photos, recorded tv etc. Was tempted to go with a NAS, but all were either too expensive, too propreitary or didn't hold sufficient disks.

Power consumption is another thing in mind, any idea how your setup fares? Sounds like you have 2 PCs running just to get media to your TV. When i hear stats like the Mac Mini runs on 11w of power, makes me think twice about running a dedicated machine for Media

 

[Marcos]

I've been looking at various devices and a friend has just got a readynas duo, I can't see much reason to get anything else myself, it's small, performance is very reasonable and power consumption is very very good. It's also basically debian underneath apparently so it's not that proprietary.

See thats what im thinking, that any other box is going to be bigger, more power consumptive (sp?) and complicated.

 

[Marcos]

I'd suggest:
Ubuntu as base system
TwonkyMedia as the file server system for most stuff [supports SMB and Bonjour IIRC],
PS3 MediaServer for the PS3 [it's a simple java app, works brilliantly]
100Mb networking everywhere.

If you can't get wired networking, then ideally you want a transcoding solution. PS3 Media Server can do some decent downsampling of content to get it to fit on a slower wireless connnection where the raw file just won't work [I can't get raw 720p files to stream to my Xbox cleanly - the medium downsampling option works perfectly without too much loss of detail].

TVersity is also worth looking at, if you can get it to work properly - my install stopped indexing files properly. As I only stream to my netbook and the XBox, I just SMB [simple windows file sharing] for th enetbook, and PS3MS for the XBox.

As for replication solutions - well, with Linux you can use RSync. Any decent freeware backup solution should be able to do a daily copypasta of one drive to another.

Hope that helps.

In terms of a different machine for serving data, any low range quad core machine will have loadsa grunt for that. In terms of clients, AVOID ATOM LIKE THE PLAGUE and also avoid anything with an Intel 950, or in fact, any Intel chipset - only the most recent ones support HD resolutions out of the box with any degree of competence. Discrete Nvidia/ATI solutions are better.

I haven't experimented with remote power on as I tend to watch stuff on the Xbox in the evening - I go up to my room to kick off my shoes and stow my jacket, power up the machine, log in, start the services then go back downstairs...

Anyway, hope that helps. You'll want to look into things like TVersity, TwonkyMedia, FUPPES, and Bonjour for Windows, which I beleive works better on Macs than hooking up to SMB shares.

Oh, and my setup:
Q6600/8gb RAM/HD4850 as a server.
Win7 64 bit
SMB file sharing
PS3 Media Server for XBox transcoding/viewing.
Orb for music streaming - works really nicely on the Xbox, I expect PS3MediaServer would do the job for your PS3 though.
54g Wifi [BT voyager - ha!]

Clients:
Xbox 360 wired to 54g router - PS3 media server works, but doesn't support subs/skipping when transcoding. For stuff that doesn't need transcoding, it works perfectly.

Acer Aspire One A150/Ubuntu 9.10 - can just about handle 720p files, to the degree that I don't bother with them - fine for SDTV streamed stuff though.

What box do you guys start with? Cause you've listed all the insides, but something really discrete and neat is really important. It'll probably go on the TV bench shelf next to the PS3 etc.

Thanks for the detail though